The Morning After: Wednesday, December 13th 2017

DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue sequel coming to XBLA, PSN in September

With justice not entirely dispensed, evil still to be vanquished and plenty of downtrodden to be, uh, heroed, the titular DeathSpank returns in DeathSpank: Thongs of Virtue. Hothead Games today announced a full-on sequel to this summer's Diablo homage (parody?) on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network -- and it's almost complete! Thongs of Virtue will launch on PSN and XBLA on September 21 and 22, respectively, for $15 (or 1200 Microsoft Points).

The quick turnaround is the result of Hothead beginning development on Thongs of Virtuewell before the release of the first game, and despite creator Ron Gilbert's departure from the studio in April. (You might recall that DeathSpank was originally proposed as an episodic endeavor, but that plan was supposedly abandoned during development of the first game.) Thongs of Virtue still reflects Gilbert's influence and looks to expand on the foundational elements of the original game; even if it doesn't address all of the post-release fan feedback.

"DeathSpank 1 was an introduction to the universe for people and it was very much a fantasy action RPG," producer Hamish Millar tells GameSpot. "For the second game -- and this is a reason it was a separate product, too- -- we just wanted to redefine what that could be. We just wanted to blow people's expectations out of the water as far as what kind of weapons DeathSpank can have, what worlds he can travel to, and what sort of creatures and characters and enemies he can face."